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There are several ways to enjoy season 2. Don't watch season 1. Enjoy Lera Lynn's brooding soundtrack Form a think tank with your friends while watching - discuss how interesting story lines were lobotomised by cliched and intangible endings (a good start would be Taylor Kitsch's entire character) and how the show could have been so much better with a bit more care (and you'll get to argue for hours on who from the stellar ensemble was miscast - a tip: if you watch Daredevil don't watch this...Vince Vaughn mimicking Kingpin will drive you to drink!). Skip the finale entirely. The show was awarded the worst show of 2015 - an award that must have been based entirely on the last horrendous episode. A great shame because the premise had potential and there were some great scenes (the shootout in episode 4 is fantastic).

I found Season 2 to be a MAJOR disappointment after the glorious heights of Season 1. Season 2 was disjointed, haphazard, amateurish and annoying- I'd skip it if you're a fan of the first season, as it will only tarnish your image of Nic Pizzolatto ( did he have help with the writing of the first season because the discrepancies between 1 & 2 are astonishing ).

I'm not a fan of this genre as much as I like noire, but I was entertained by this one as it really captures the spirit of California, especially S. Cal, as a place where it really doesn't matter who you are, or what part of town you're in - S Cal will kill you and take pleasure in the deed.

I lived in Santa Barbara for nearly three decades and went thru LA a lot so I was reminded why I hate LA even though it is an awesome place. Awesome in it's monstrosities and power to distract.

The comments that it was too S Cal aren't wrong, and I spent several years recently in New Orleans too. The first TD was good with the rivalry between the two detectives but that one was actually less of snapshot of Louisiana while TDII really brings LA to life. Louisiana is much more vibrant and generous than the portrayal in the series. The people there aren't the grotesque monsters that it portrayed (there are fanatics) while the people in LA and S Cal are monsters as well as grotesque in mind and body.

And if you think I'm exaggerating, then please, stay in Santa Barbara for a few weeks. Be sure to get a couple of blocks off State St and the other tourist haunts where the undercover cops aren't in control and you'll see the same characters as in True Detectives 2. It's just LA Lite. Your money or your life. And the cops are just as corrupt as the LA police. All the things that made Santa Barbara and S Cal really great places are nearly gone, converted into funhouse attractions, or dying from Climate Change.

Deeply disappointing and unsatisfying second season of HBO's anthology crime drama. I know it received mixed reviews, but I was prepared to give a chance. The first season certainly had its flaws, but it also had a great, brooding atmosphere and excellent lead performances. Creator/writer Nic Pizzolatto seems to have taken some of the criticisms of the first season to heart and ditched all the literary horror elements, which I liked, and tried to be less masculine by adding a stronger woman character. The strong Southern setting of the first season is also absent, instead replaced by a noir-ish California. It's a far more conventional cop/gangster drama that never really gets going. Its biggest flaw is that it's really boring. Vince Vaughn and Colin Farrell struggle with more serious roles, but Pizzolatto really knows one character type: violent, intense, troubled, hard drinking men. Rachel McAdams is essentially this kind of character too. And don't get me started on Taylor Kitsch, who is just embarrassing. Yeah, a real bummer. The opening sequence, featuring a Leonard Cohen song, is the highlight.

Too pretentious and insubstantial to elicit sympathy from an audience, the second season of TRUE DETECTIVE is only made worse by the fact that its debut season was so profoundly great. All Vince Vaughn does is whine at his wife. Colin Farrell is supposed to play a damaged cop, much like Matthew McConaughey did in the first season, but Colin can't rival Matthew; they're in different leagues. Taylor Kitsch just adds to the troubled cop routine without really beefing up anything at all. That's my main issue, that so much is going on and yet nothing at all, paced so slowly and caught up in these flimsy characters with little interest in a clear-cut case. The only actor progressing the murder storyline is Rachel McAdams who is a national treasure and deserves way more screen time. She is the only reason I plodded on through this season because it is so devastatingly boring. I don't recommend it.

This season was so disappointing in comparison to the first! It definitely did get better the closer it got to the end but the plot was just so confusing and convoluted. Vince Vaughn did not see totally believable In his role and I thought the woman who played his wife was not a very good actress at all! Overall, it was just okay.

Quotes

Leonard Cohen - Nevermind opening tune:
the war was lost ♪ ♪ the treaty signed ♪ ♪ I was not caught ♪ ♪ I crossed the line ♪ ♪ I was not caught ♪ ♪ though many tried ♪ ♪ I live among you ♪ ♪ well disguised ♪♪ I had to leave ♪ ♪ my life behind ♪ ♪ I dug some graves ♪ ♪ you'll never find ♪>♪ the story's told ♪ ♪ with facts and lies ♪ ♪ I have a name ♪ ♪ but never mind ♪ ♪ never mind ♪ ♪ never mind ♪ ♪ I had to leave my life behind ♪ ♪ the story's told ♪ ♪ with facts and lies ♪ ♪ you own the world, so never mind ♪ ♪ my woman's here ♪ ♪ my children, too ♪ ♪ their graves are safe from ghosts like you ♪ ♪ in places deep ♪ ♪ with roots and twine ♪ ♪ I live the life I left behind ♪ ♪ the war was lost ♪ ♪ the treaty signed ♪ ♪ I was not caught ♪ ♪ I crossed the line ♪ ♪ I was not caught ♪ ♪ though many tried ♪ ♪ I live among you ♪ ♪ well disguised ♪

Pop: I am not comfortable imposing my will on anyone and I haven't been since 1978.
Bezzerides: Not even to stop them walking into a river.
...
Pop: A failed marriage, a few relationships, you're angry at the entire world and men in particular out of a false sense of entitlement for something you never received. Your entire personality is an extended criticism of my values. Meant, I'm sure, to compel me into engagement through argument. Do you even like what you do? Or is it just a reflexive urge toward authority out of defiance?
Bezzerides: Talk to your daughter, prick. Help her.
Pop: I just did
===
Jordan: You always said you want lots of land.
Frank: Yes, but you need children to leave it to. It’s never really yours. You don’t take it with you.

Doctor: May I ask, how much do you drink in a week?
Ray: All I can.
===
Ray: Sometimes, a good beating provokes personal growth.
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Jordan: I’ve worked my whole life. Same as you. And not being poor is better than the opposite.
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Bezzerides: The fundamental difference between the sexes is that one of them can kill the other with their bare hands. A man of any size lays his hands on me, he's gonna bleed out in under a minute.
Ray: Well, just so you know, I support feminism, mostly by having body image issues.

Mayor: You deal with pimps, you get pimpish results, Frank.
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Ray: Pain is inexhaustible. It's only people that get exhausted.
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Ray: I would have been different.
Fran: Of all the lies people tell themselves, I bet that's the most common. ... I didn't get you to do anything. I gave you a name and you made your choice, and that choice was in you before your wife or any of this other stuff. It was always there, waiting. Didn't you use that man to be what you were waiting to become? This thing, your wife, those are just excuses. You think you were Superman, previous? And hey, own it. You think I'd have done less? That's the kind of thing that keeps you out of Heaven. I don't want to go.

Bezzarides: Somebody died here.
Davis: Somebody dies every second of the day, and they're not all lucky enough to do it in California.
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Bezzarides: You never asked if I did it.
Pop: It doesn't matter. You're the most innocent person I've ever known.
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Frank: We met? You're a cop, right? Lady cop.
Bezzerides: What gave me away - the tits?
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Ray: A turn here, a turn there, and it goes on for years, becomes something else. I'm sorry, you know, for the man I became, the father I was... I hope you got the strength to learn from that.